Yes
Minister ran from 1980 until 1982, with a total of 21
episodes. Paul Eddington starred as Jim Hacker, PC, MP, BDc
(Econ),
newly-appointed Minister of Administrative Affairs.
Hacker represents an unspecified political party but is clearly a
moderate, either centre-right (most likely) or centre-left.
He
enters office with enthusiasm and ambition, determined to make his
mark upon public life, but soon comes to realise that his hands
are tied by complex bureaucratic regulations that seem both
indecipherable and insurmountable.
His Private Secretary, the pedantic Bernard Woolley, does his best
to steer Hacker through the minefield, but whatever progress the
two of them make is usually revealed as a dead-end.
This is because, keeping one or more steps ahead of Hacker, is his
Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby KCB, MVO, MA (Oxon), a
silky-smooth senior civil servant with a treasure trove of
baffling phrases, paradoxical reasoning and enigmatic
explanations. In Sir Humphrey's hands, Hacker is merely the ball
in a Machiavellian game of political ping-pong.
Appleby was committed to seeing that his
ministerial charge never meddled too much in the business of the
department, and that the real power remained securely in the hands
of the civil service.
 If Hacker inquired too closely as to why he was not going to
get his way about something, Sir Humphrey was more than
able to throw up a smokescreen of obfuscation and technical
jargon, which usually discouraged further questioning.
This classic sitcom exposed the machinations of senior
politicians and civil servants in Great Britain, and such was the
standard of scripts and performance ( and the accuracy of the
satire) that the program became required viewing for politicians,
journalists, and the general public alike.
The
idea for the series was developed by writer Antony Jay and former
Doctor in the House star Jonathan Lynn while both were on the
payroll of the video production company set up by John Cleese in
the mid-1970s.
The BBC bought the rights to the pilot episode and work on a
full series finally got under way in 1979. From 1986, there was a
16-episode sequel, Yes Prime Minister, with Hacker promoted
to PM and Sir Humphrey elevated to Cabinet Secretary.
Harold Wilson's one-time secretary, Lady Marcia Falkender, was
involved with the show, providing behind-the-scenes insight into
the operations of Whitehall.
Amongst the show's many devotees was one Margaret Hilda
Thatcher, who named it as her favourite program.
 Sixteen episodes of Yes Minister were re-recorded for
broadcast by BBC Radio 4, with all the principal cast reprising
their roles.
There were two series of eight episodes apiece,
airing 18 October to 7 December 1983 and 8 October to 27 November
1984.
In 1997, Derek Fowlds stepped back into the role of Bernard
Woolley to read Antony Jay's How To Beat Sir Humphrey: Every
Citizen's Guide To Fighting Officialdom, broadcast in three
daily parts by Radio 4 from 29 September to 1 October.
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